Cory Byrd sentenced to 50 years to life in murder of Marc Bookal

GOSHEN - Cory Byrd was sentenced to a total of 50-years- to- life in Orange County Court Thursday morning for the killing of 4-year-old Marc Bookal.

By Heather Yakin

GOSHEN – Cory Byrd was sentenced Thursday to 50 years to life in prison for the murder of 4-year-old Marc Bookal and for disposing of his body .

Byrd was alone with Marc, the son of Byrd's then-girlfriend, when the boy disappeared in December 2009. The child; body was found three months later, stuffed inside a book bag and playpen bag from the family's apartment. Marc's remains were found hidden under a dense brush pile in a vacant lot just a few blocks from the home. A jury convicted Byrd on Jan. 26 of reckless, depraved-indifference murder and two felony counts of tampering with physical evidence.

On Thursday, Byrd had to face the woman who had trusted him: Marc's mother, Christina Bookal.She spoke about Marc's birth as a happiest day of her life, and she talked about the joy her sweet, smiling youngest child brought her.“The worst day of my life was hearing he was murdered by someone I trusted, who was supposed to love my family like his own,” she said. “Cory made me believe he didn't do it, and it was somebody else because of jealousy.”

The pain of losing Marc never goes away, she said. “I wanted to see him go to high school and college. All my hopes and dreams for my baby were demolished.”

She told Judge Jeffrey Berry that Byrd deserved the longest sentence the court can give, “without sunlight – since he took my sunlight away.”

Yul Bookal, Marc's father, said the last time he saw Marc, he bought him a pack of gum, He'd asked Marc if the boy was going to give some to Byrd.“He said ‘yeah, I love Cory,'” Yul Bookal told the court, his voice thick with tears.“Why (did) Marc have to die the way he did? He died a brutal death,” he said. “He didn't deserve it.”

“This community has a collective broken heart at the loss of one of its youngest and most vulnerable citizens,” Assistant District Attorney Karen Edelman-Reyes told the court, calling the way Marc died – beaten so severely that even though his remains were found three months after his death the signs of terrible deep bruising on his buttock and ankles and a massive brain hemorrhage were still clear to a medical examiner – “inhuman and unforgiveable.”

She asked the court to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law: 25 years to life for murder, and 25 years to life for Byrd as a persistent felony offender on each of the evidence-tampering charges, to run concurrently with each other and consecutive to the murder sentence.

“We have pity and sorrow only for Marc and the people who loved him,” Edelman-Reyes said.

Byrd maintained his innocence.“I understand this is a very sad situation for Christina and her family, because her kids mean a lot to her,” he said. “But your honor, I didn't commit this crime. I was wrongfully charged and convicted, and the People didn't prove the case against me.”Byrd's lawyer, Joseph Brown, said a sentence of 20 years to life would be sufficient.

Berry imposed the sentence as Edelman-Reyes recommended, for a total of 50 years to life.

“This little child lived a nightmare of nightmares that no normal-functioning human would wish upon their worst enemy,” Berry said, lighting into Byrd. “The injuries that Marc sustained were inhumanly inflicted on this child.”